BRASILIA (Reuters) -COVID-19 infections have dropped across the Americas, with the most dramatic improvement in the United States due to mass vaccination, the head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, said on Wednesday.
But she warned that there were “glaring gaps” in vaccine distribution in the region, with the lion’s share going to the United States, while just 3% of Latin Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
By comparison, in the United States today almost half of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 85% of those over the age of 85 are fully protected, she said in a weekly briefing from Washington.
“The progress we’re seeing in the United States is a testament to the power of safe and effective COVID vaccines, but it underscores the vital importance of accelerating access to vaccines throughout our region,” Etienne said.
While COVID-19 infections have dropped across the Americas in the last month, in many Caribbean islands like the Bahamas, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago deaths doubled in the last week, according to PAHO.
Canada has registered a tripling of infections in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and its Northwest Territories, PAHO said, while Costa Rica, Panama and parts of Honduras are also reporting sharp rises in new infections.
In Brazil, PAHO said it sees a pause in the decreasing trends observed during the previous weeks.
The coronavirus variant predominant in Brazil, P.1, has been reported in 21 countries of the Americas, most frequently in Chile, Peru and Argentina, said PAHO incident manager Sylvain Aldighieri. He said the variant was more transmissible but there was no evidence that it was more aggressive or lethal.
(Reporting by Anthony BoadleEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rosalba O’Brien)
